It’s been nearly two months since Phil Robertson, the beloved patriarch of Duck Dynasty, passed away after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. On their podcast, “Unashamed,” Phil’s sons Jase and Al Robertson have openly shared the raw and heartfelt journey of grieving their father’s loss with their listeners. Yet Jase recently revealed a deeply personal story he had held close — until now.
In the latest episode of “Unashamed,” Jase recounted a poignant, tearful moment that beautifully illustrates how God works in mysterious and profound ways.
“It seems unbelievable. I wouldn’t make this up because it’s kind of a heavy story,” he says.
When Phil was at the pinnacle of his fight against Alzheimer’s, Jase, trying to get his mind off his father’s waning condition, went to the driving range to hit a few golf balls.
“I was hitting the ball terribly because I hadn’t been playing golf,” he confesses.
Unbeknownst to him, the club’s multi-time champion was watching him. “I knew him but didn’t really know him,” Jase says, “and he’s like, ‘Do you want me to help you?’”
The two ended up playing nine holes together and exchanging phone numbers.
The very next day, however, Jase received a text message from a friend mourning the death of one of the golf club’s members.
The person who had died was none other than the man Jase had played with the day prior. “I was so shocked,” he says.
Life, as it does, moved on. Phil passed away on May 25, and after funeral arrangements and time to grieve with family, Jase continued recording podcasts and running Duck Commander.
Last week, however, Jase returned to the golf course. Little did he know that another strange encounter awaited him.
Jase, alone on a nearly empty course, suddenly got the feeling that he was “being watched.”
“I look and there’s a guy standing there … in the parking lot looking at me,” he says. “I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ and he said, ‘What are you fixing to do?’ which I thought was a weird question. … I said, ‘I’m fixing to play nine holes,’ and he said, ‘Can I play with you?’”
Jase could see that the man was sad, and immediately he knew that this encounter wasn’t an accident. “I thought, this has got to be a God thing,” he says.
And it was.
The second the man got into Jase’s cart, he told him that his best friend of 35 years had died and that he hadn’t been able to play golf since.
His friend happened to be the man Jase had played golf with a few months prior.
“He said, ‘I’m into a routine where I go to his grave site and … then I come up here, and I just sit in the parking lot. … I know you just lost your dad, and I saw you walk across the parking lot, and I thought, well, maybe he can help me,”’ Jase recounts.
“It was an uncomfortable, weird conversation,” but “we talked about Jesus. We talked about life,” he says.
Right as they were finishing their game, a storm was blowing in. “I turned around and looked back at the fairway. It was the most spectacular rainbow you have ever seen in your life,” says Jase. “When he saw that rainbow, he just burst into tears.”
When they eventually parted ways, Jase was “overcome with emotion.”
“I thought, this is what God does,” he says, noting that the encounter hadn’t just been for the man who was grieving his friend — it was also for him.
“I think God sent him for me,” he says, “because it was probably the most I had talked about Phil in that way.”
To hear the full story from Jase, watch the episode above.
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